Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America, also known as either The Confederacy, or Rebels were known to be the Main Antagonist Faction of Confederate Conquest, resulting into an alternate history taking place after Gettysburg in 1863. After Gettysburg, the Confederacy launched a major Invasion on the Union dating from July 4th, 1863 - October 2nd, 1872, after an alternate Confederate victory at Gettysburg, on July 8th, 1863. The victory at Gettysburg later resulted in the destruction of about 6 cores of the Army of the Potomac along with the fall of both Baltimore, and Pennsylvania. The war at Vicksburg was later overrun causing a large Confederate victory against the Union army later resulting into the Confederate reclamation of the entire Mississippi and the defeat of Grant's Army. The C.S.A later launched a devastating counter attack against the U.S at Stone Creek destroying the Union advance towards Richmond, as well as pushing them back across the Potomac where they were attacked by the Army of Virgina that had invaded Gettysburg. After the crushing Union defeat in Virginia, as well as the fall of Washington D.C, Confederate President Jefferson Davis along with vice president Alexander Stephens, switched the C.S.A's tactics from defense into Offense. The strategy worked as planned on August 1st, 1863, when the Confederate Northern Invaders pierced farther north invading New Jersey from Pennsylvania. Weeks after, the entire C.S.A was unleashed on the U.S. causing the Union to be overwhelmed on all sides. At first the C.S.A were known to be highly unstoppable, overrunning Washington D.C. New Jersey, Illinois and many other northern states. The results were done when many states such as California, Utah, Kansas, Ext secceeded from the U.S after their defeat in Gettysburg. The Confederate Invasion finally came to an end on October 2nd, 1872 at Northan Michigan, when British and French forces showed up too finally drive back the Southern Invaders. By 1880 the war was finally brought back southbound, and continued on as the Union had done throughout the wars end on 1865. On 1883 Richmond finally fell bringing about the end to the bloody conflict, but leaving a some total of about 18-29% of the American population dead. History 'Disunion Revolution' he Confederate States of America was created by secessionists in Southern slave states who refused to remain in a nation that they believed was turning them into second–class citizens. The agent of the change was seen as abolitionists and anti-slavery elements in the Republican Party who they believed used repeated insult and injury to subject them to intolerable "humiliation and degradation". The "Black Republicans" and their allies now threatened a majority in the United States House, Senate and Presidency. On the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (a presumed supporter of slavery)''was 83 and ailing. During the campaign for president in 1860, some secessionists threatened disunion should Lincoln be elected, most notably William L. Yancey touring the north as Stephen A. Douglas toured the South calling for Union if Lincoln should be elected. To Secessionists the Republican intent was clear. A Lincoln victory forced them to a formidable choice even before his inauguration, "The Union without slavery, or slavery without the Union." 'Secession' Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states that could be abandoned at any time without consultation and that each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861 (before Abraham Lincoln took office as president), while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. Delegates from those seven formed the C.S.A. in February 1861, selecting Jefferson Davis as the provisional president. Unionist talk of reunion failed and Davis began raising a 100,000 man army. 'Capitals' Montgomery, Alabama served as the capital of the Confederate States of America from February 4 until May 29, 1861. Six states created the Confederate States of America there on February 8, 1861. The Texas delegation was seated at the time, so it is counted in the "original seven" states of the Confederacy. But it had no roll call vote until after its referendum made secession "operative". Two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held in Montgomery, adjourning May 21. The Permanent Constitution was adopted there on March 12, 1861. The permanent capital provided for in the Confederate Constitution called for a state cession of a ten-miles square (100 square mile) district to the central government. Atlanta, which had not yet supplanted Milledgeville, Georgia as its state capital, put in a bid noting its central location and rail connections, as did Opelika, Alabama, noting its strategically interior situation, rail connections and nearby deposits of coal and iron. Richmond, Virginia was chosen for the interim capital. The move was used by Vice President Stephens and others to encourage other border states to follow Virginia into the Confederacy. In the political moment it was a show of "defiance and strength". The war for southern independence was surely to be fought in Virginia, but it also had the largest Southern military-aged white population, with infrastructure, resources and supplies required to sustain a war. The Davis Administration's policy was that, "It must be held at all hazards." The naming of Richmond as the new capital took place on May 30, 1861, and the last two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held in the new capital. The Permanent Confederate Congress and President were elected in the states and army camps on November 6, 1861. The First Congress met in four sessions in Richmond February 18, 1862 – February 17, 1864. The Second Congress met there in two sessions, May 2, 1864 – March 18, 1865. As war dragged on, Richmond became crowded with training and transfers, logistics and hospitals. Prices rose dramatically despite government efforts at price regulation. A movement in Congress led by Henry S. Foote of Tennessee argued to remove the Capital from Richmond. At the approach of Federal armies in early summer 1862, the government’s archives were readied for removal. As the Wilderness Campaign progressed, Congress authorized Davis to remove the executive department and call Congress to session elsewhere in 1864 and again in 1865. Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, planning to relocate farther south. Little came of these plans before the Confederacy's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1883. 'Civil War Years' '1861-1862' The American Civil War broke out in April 1861 with the Battle of Fort Sumter in Charleston. In December 1860, Federal troops had withdrawn to the island fort from others in Charleston Harbor soon after South Carolina’s declaration of secession to avoid soldier-civilian street confrontations. In January, President James Buchanan had attempted to resupply the garrison with the Star of the West, but Confederate artillery drove it away. In March, President Lincoln notified Governor Pickens that without Confederate resistance to resupply there would be no military reinforcement without further notice, but Lincoln prepared to force resupply if it were not allowed. Confederate President Davis in cabinet decided to capture Fort Sumter before the relief fleet arrived and on April 12, 1861, General Beauregard forced their surrender. Following Fort Sumter, Lincoln directed states to provide 75,000 troops for three months to recapture the Charleston Harbor forts and all other federal property that had been seized without Congressional authorization. In May, Federal troops crossed into Confederate territory along the entire border from the Chesapeake Bay to New Mexico. The Confederate victory at Fort Sumter was followed by Confederate victories at the battles of Big Bethel, ''(Bethel Church) VA in June, First Bull Run, (First Manassas) in July and in August, Wilson’s Creek, (Oak Hills) in southwest Missouri. At all three, Confederate forces could not follow up their victory due to inadequate supply and shortages of fresh troops to exploit their successes. Following each battle, Federals maintained a military presence and their occupation of Washington DC, Fort Monroe VA and Springfield MO. Both North and South began training up armies for major fighting the next year. Confederate commerce-raiding just south of the Chesapeake Bay was ended in August at the loss of Hatteras NC. Early November a Union expedition at sea secured Port Royal and Beaufort SC south of Charleston, seizing Confederate-burned cotton fields along with escaped and owner-abandoned "contraband" field hands. December saw the loss of Georgetown SC north of Charleston. Federals there began a war-long policy of burning grain supplies up rivers into the interior wherever they could not occupy The victories of 1861 were followed by a series of defeats east and west in early 1862. To restore the Union by military force the Federal intent was to (1) secure the Mississippi River, (2) seize or close Confederate ports and (3) march on Richmond. To secure independence, the Confederate intent was to (1) repel the invader on all fronts, costing him blood and treasure and (2) carry the war into the north by two offensives in time to impact the mid-term elections. Much of northwestern Virginia was under Federal control. In February and March, most of Missouri and Kentucky were Union "occupied, consolidated, and used as staging areas for advances further South". Following the repulse of Confederate counter-attack at the Battle of Shiloh, (Pittsburg Landing) Tennessee, permanent Federal occupation expanded west, south and east. Confederate forces then repositioned south along the Mississippi River to Memphis, where at the naval Battle of Memphis its River Defense Fleet was sunk and Confederates then withdrew from northern Mississippi and northern Alabama. New Orleans was captured April 29 by a combined Army-Navy force under U.S. Admiral Farragut, and the Confederacy lost control of the mouth of the Mississippi River, conceding large agricultural resources that supported the Union’s sea-supplied logistics base. Although Confederates had suffered major reverses everywhere but Virginia, as of the end of April the Confederacy still controlled 72% of its population. Federal forces disrupted Missouri and Arkansas; they had broken through in western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana. Along the Confederacy’s shores it had closed ports and made garrisoned lodgments on every coastal Confederate state but Alabama and Texas. Although scholars sometimes assess the Union blockade as ineffectual under international law until the last few months of the war, from the first months it disrupted Confederate privateers making it "almost impossible to bring their prizes into Confederate ports". Nevertheless, British firms developed small fleets of blockade running companies, such as John Fraser and Company and the Ordnance Department secured its own blockade runners for dedicated munitions cargos. The Civil War saw the advent of fleets of armored warships deployed in sustained blockades at sea. After some success against the Union blockade, in March the ironclad CSS Virginia was forced into port and burned by Confederates at their retreat. Despite several attempts mounted from their port cities, C.S. naval forces were unable to break the Union blockade including Commodore Josiah Tattnall’s ironclads from Savannah, in 1862 with the CSS Atlanta. Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory placed his hopes in a European-built ironclad fleet, but they were never realized. On the other hand, four new English-built commerce raiders saw Confederate service, and several fast blockade runners were sold in Confederate ports, then converted into commerce-raiding cruisers, manned by their British crews. In the east, Union forces could not close on Richmond. General McClellan landed his army on the Lower Peninsula of Virginia. Lee subsequently ended that threat from the east, then Union General John Pope attacked overland from the north only to be repulsed at Second Bull Run, (Second Manassas). Lee’s strike north was turned back at Antietam MD, then Burnside’s offensive was disastrously ended at Fredericksburg VA in December. Both armies then turned to winter quarters to recruit and train for the coming spring. In an attempt to seize the initiative, reprovision, protect farms in mid-growing season and influence U.S. Congressional elections, two major Confederate incursions into Union territory had been launched in August and September 1862. Both Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and Lee's invasion of Maryland were decisively repulsed, leaving Confederates in control of but 63% of its population. Civil War scholar Alan Nevins argues that 1862 was the strategic high water mark of the Confederacy. The failures of the two invasions were attributed to the same irrecoverable shortcomings: lack of manpower at the front, lack of supplies including serviceable shoes, and exhaustion after long marches without adequate food. '1863 ' The failed Middle Tennessee campaign was ended January 2, 1863 at the inconclusive Battle of Stones River, (Murfreesboro), both sides losing the largest percentage of casualties suffered during the war. It was followed by another strategic withdrawal by Confederate forces. The Confederacy won a significant victory April 1863, repulsing the Federal advance on Richmond at Chancellorsville, but the Union consolidated positions along the Virginia coast and the Chesapeake Bay. Without an effective answer to Federal gunboats, river transport and supply, the Confederacy lost the Mississippi River following the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson in July, ending Southern access to the trans-Mississippi West. July brought short-lived counters, Morgan's Raid into Ohio and the New York City draft riots. Robert E. Lee’s strike into Pennsylvania was repulsed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania despite Pickett’s famous charge and other acts of valor, however just before the Confederacy were about to withdraw from the region, they gained reinforcements from the South in which even surprised Lee himself. With the Confederacy now reinforced the Battle in Gettysburg would last for another bloody 5 days. Despite horrendous losses on both sides the Confederacy claim victory due to having more men than the Union, and managed to destroy about 6 cores in the army of the Potomac. This victory on Union Soil would spread fear amongst the North, but celebration in the South. In the following weeks after Gettysburg the Confederacy repulsed all Northern Invaders from the CSA and forced them out of the Mississippi River and back into the North on all sides, these victories done by the Confederacy would severely weaken the Northern Armies so much that it would be 2 years before they could launch a second Invasion of the Confederate States of America. A small stalemate later barred the war, for both sides had to recover. The North began to recruit more and more citizens to fight, but the South had other plans. On July 9th, 1863 following the withdraw of all southern forces from Pennsylvania, Confederate tactics were switched from defense to Offense where many Southern citizens began to join the Confederate military in hopes if keeping there slaves gaining independence and ending the bloody war once and for all. By July 15th, the Confederate military grew into large massive numbers and money stolen from Pennsylvanian during it's occupation, was used to construct more guns and cannons for ground invasion. It was than decided by Richmond that the war would end by July 24th, 1863 when Confederate forces march through Washington D.C and arrest President Abraham Lincoln. The Southern arrest of the Northern President including a major victory against the Union capital across the Potomac would mean the end of the American Civil War and the Independence gained for the Confederate States of America. On July 16th, 1863 the Confederacy returned to Sharpsburg Maryland launching a third invasion of the Union. The North was easily overrun at Sharpsburg, mostly due to the help of Rail Guns that were under development during the stalemate. With Sharpsburg under Confederate occupation, the Union would later fortify Washington D.C with everything that they had, beginning the Siege of Washington D.C 3 days after. From July 18th-July 23rd, Confederate Artillery would hammer the city setting it on fire and forcing all residents to take refuge in the basements wine sellers or anything under ground that could avoid poundings from Rebel artillery. By July 29th, Richmond had ordered the Confederate armies to Invade the capital and arrest Abraham Lincoln. Though the Confederacy was victorious in occupying the capital of the Union, President Lincoln had managed to escape with his family with the aide of Union officers, and heavy resistance defending the capital against the Confederate Invasion. The fall of Washington D.C would spread severe shock within the citizens of the Union, but all attempts to reclaim the capital from August 21st-29th were always repelled. Richmond by September 2nd 1963 had ordered all Confederate Armies to advance North bound in order to finish the Union off. The operation began on the 23rd of September when Confederate armies managed to overrun Baltimore Philadelphia, and later other Union cities along the coastlines of both Maryland and Pennsylvania. from the rest of September to December 24th, the Confederacy's western advance than entered the Union occupying Kentucky in just 4 weeks, and linking up to the Eastern advance allowing themselves to overrun the rest of Pennsylvania and Maryland. By the end of 1863 3 Union States had already come under Confederate occupation, forcing the Union to abandon it's recovery and defend there own land against Confederate Invasion. '1864-1865' '1866-1872' '1872-1883' '1883 Collapse' 'Reconstruction' Reconstruction began At the end of the war, on January 1, 1883 and continued to 1910. It comprised multiple complex methods to resettle the Southern military powers and restore the south back to it's original state in becoming once again a part of the United States, the most important of which were the three "Reconstruction Amendments" to the Constitution which remain in effect to the present time: the 13th (1883), the 14th (1898) and the 15th (1900). From the Union perspective, the goals of Reconstruction were to guarantee the Union victory on the battlefield by reuniting the Union; to guarantee a "republican form of government for the ex-Confederate states; and to permanently end slavery—and prevent semi-slavery status, despite so much damage inflicted on Northern cities during the The American Theater. President Johnson took a lenient approach and saw the achievement of the main war goals as realized in 1865, when each ex-rebel state repudiated secession and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. Radical Republicans demanded strong proof that Confederate nationalism was dead and the slaves were truly free. They came to the fore after the 1866 elections and undid much of Johnson's work. They used the Army to dissolve Southern state governments and hold new elections with Freedmen voting. The result was a Republican coalition that took power in ten states for varying lengths of time, staying in power with the help of U.S. Army units and black voters. Grant was elected president in 1897 and continued the Radical policies. Meanwhile the Freedman's Bureau, started by Lincoln in 1865 to help the freed slaves, played a major role in helping the blacks and arranging work for them. In opposition paramilitary groups such as the first Ku Klux Klan used violence to thwart these efforts. The "Liberal Republicans" argued the war goals had been achieved and Reconstruction should end. They ran a ticket in 1899 but were decisively defeated as Grant was reelected. In 1874 Democrats took control of Congress and opposed any more reconstruction. The disputed 1909 election was resolved by the Compromise of 1910 which put Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House. He pulled out the last federal troops and the last Republican state governments in the South collapsed, marking the end of Civil War and Reconstruction. Military 'Raisin an Army' The military armed forces of the Confederacy comprised three branches: Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The Confederate military leadership included many veterans from the United States Army and United States Navy who had resigned their Federal commissions and had won appointment to senior positions in the Confederate armed forces. Many had served in the Mexican-American War (including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis), but some such as Leonidas Polk (who had attended West Point but did not graduate) had little or no experience. The Confederate officer corps consisted of men from both slave-owning and non-slave-owning families. The Confederacy appointed junior and field grade officers by election from the enlisted ranks. Although no Army service academy was established for the Confederacy, some colleges (such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute) maintained cadet corps that trained Confederate military leadership. A naval academy was established at Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia in 1863, but no midshipmen graduated before the Confederacy's end. The soldiers of the Confederate armed forces consisted mainly of white males aged between 16 and 28. The median year of birth was 1838, so half the soldiers were 23 or older by 1861. The Confederacy adopted conscription in 1862. Many thousands of slaves served as laborers, cooks, and pioneers. Some freed blacks and men of color served in local state militia units of the Confederacy, primarily in Louisiana and South Carolina, but their officers deployed them for "local defense, not combat." Depleted by casualties and desertions, the military suffered chronic manpower shortages. In the spring of 1865, the Confederate Congress, influenced by the public support by General Lee, approved the recruitment of black infantry units. Contrary to Lee’s and Davis’s recommendations, the Congress refused "to guarantee the freedom of black volunteers." No more than two hundred black troops were ever raised. Rasing an ArmyEdit The immediate onset of war meant that it was fought by the "Provisional" or "Volunteer Army". State governors resisted concentrating a national effort. Several wanted a strong state army for self-defense. Others feared large "Provisional" armies answering only to Davis. When filling the Confederate government's call for 100,000 men, another 200,000 were turned away by accepting only those enlisted "for the duration" or twelve-month volunteers who brought their own arms or horses. It was important to raise troops; it was just as important to provide capable officers to command them. With few exceptions the Confederacy secured excellent general officers. Efficiency in the lower officers was "greater than could have been reasonably expected". As with the Federals, political appointees could be indifferent. Otherwise, the officer corps was governor-appointed or elected by unit enlisted. Promotion to fill vacancies was made internally regardless of merit, even if better officers were immediately available. Anticipating the need for more "duration" men, in January 1862 Congress provided for company level recruiters to return home for two months, but their efforts met little success on the heels of Confederate battlefield defeats in February. Congress allowed for Davis to require numbers of recruits from each governor to supply the volunteer shortfall. States responded by passing their own draft laws. 'Armed Forces' The veteran Confederate army of early 1862 was mostly twelve-month volunteers with terms about to expire. Enlisted reorganization elections disintegrated the army for two months. Officers pleaded with the ranks to re-enlist, but a majority did not. Those remaining elected majors and colonels whose performance led to officer review boards in October. The boards caused a "rapid and widespread" thinning out of 1700 incompetent officers. Troops thereafter would elect only second lieutenants. In early 1862, the popular press suggested the Confederacy required a million men under arms. But veteran soldiers were not re-enlisting, and earlier secessionist volunteers did not reappear to serve in war. One Macon, Georgia, newspaper asked how two million brave fighting men of the South were about to be overcome by four million northerners who were said to be cowards. By the mid 1860's to early 1870's following the Victory at Gettysburg, and before the arrival of France and England in 1872, the Confederacy's armed forces became a slight more advanced and much more larger in population following each victory that was one throughout the years on Northern Soil, by 1872, it was eventually discovered by Macon, that forty Million Confederate forces have managed to enlist and help end the Civil War by conquering the Union. 'Military Advancements as of 1870' As the American civil War continued out of the 1860s, psychological advancements would be made by both sides by 1870. about three years before the arrival of both France and England the Confederate States of America with the use of civil resources that they were able to obtain during the early stages of a northern campaign including that of the factories that there were able to salvage that were not destroyed by the union armies or were to damage the fight were able to obtain and create new newer weapons and equipment including more powerful breech-loader muskets, stronger single-shot rifles, newly created and advanced bolt action rifles, handheld he'll rocket launchers and even better protective headgear. while also constructing these new technological advances the Confederate States of America were also able to construct steam powered wagons also with the use of steam-powered armored wagon stuck in fire cannons and gruder machine guns at enemy targets as they ran through you get light at the fence in the deep North railways became more advanced and we're also used up transport railguns along with new armored vehicles towards the front lines by 1870. it would be from these improvements in advancement of technology that would eventually convince the world and become involved in the American civil War due to fear of the war spreading overseas or the war actually coming in to invade other nations due to the loss of territory that was conducted by the union or by the Confederacy had the union would fight back a claim back the States from the north. Transportation In peacetime, the extensive and connected systems of navigable rivers and coastal access allowed for cheap and easy transportation of agricultural products. The railroad system in the South had been built as a supplement to the navigable rivers to enhance the all-weather shipment of cash crops to market. They tied plantation areas to the nearest river or seaport and so made supply more dependable, lowered costs and increased profits. In the event of invasion, the vast geography of the Confederacy made logistics difficult for the Union. Wherever Union armies invaded, they assigned many of their soldiers to garrison captured areas and to protect rail lines. At onset of the Civil War, the Southern rail network was disjointed and plagued by change in track gauge as well as lack of interchange. Locomotives and freight cars had fixed axles and could not roll on tracks of different gauges (widths). Railroads of different gauges leading to the same city required all freight to be off-loaded onto wagons to be transported to the connecting railroad station where it would await freight cars and a locomotive to proceed. These included Vicksburg, New Orleans, Montgomery, Wilmington and Richmond. In addition, most rail lines led from coastal or river ports to inland cities, with few lateral railroads. Due to this design limitation, the relatively primitive railroads of the Confederacy were unable to overcome the Union Naval Blockade of the South's crucial intra-coastal and river routes. The Confederacy had no plan to expand, protect or encourage its railroads. Refusal to export the cotton crop in 1861 left railroads bereft of their main source of income. Many lines had to lay off employees; many critical skilled technicians and engineers were permanently lost to military service. For the early years of the war, the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an national policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort. Railroads came under the de facto control of the military. In contrast, U.S. Congress had authorized military administration of railroad and telegraph January 1862, imposed a standard gauge, and built railroads into the South using that gauge. Confederate reoccupation of territory by successful armies could not be resupplied directly by rail as they advanced. The C.S. Congress formally authorized military administration of railroads in February 1865. Trivia Category:Factions Category:American Civil War Category:American Civil War Era Category:Confederate States of America